Review Details

DarienLight Jacket

I bought a hi-viz yellow Darien Light jacket last summer for daily commuting and moseying around the countryside.

The yellow is bright but no brighter than my bicycling jacket. It looks like a firefighter's jacket. I'm cool with that.

I was concerned that the jacket would be too warm for hot summer days, but I was pleasantly surprised. With the cuffs not cinched tight and all vents open the air flow through the jacket is quite cooling. For me, it's more comfortable than no jacket!

I also discovered that the fabric breathes quite noticably, which concerned me for winter use, but here again I was pleasantly surprised. With just a t-shirt and a fleece pull-over under it, this jacket kept me comfortable down to 45 degrees (and most of my commute is at highway speeds).

When new the jacket was a bit stiff, but it has softened noticably. I have no trouble with the zippers. Well, I do have one small difficulty with zippers: the cuff zippers want to ride up (i.e. unzip) a bit. It would be nice if these had locking zipper tabs. This is a small issue, but it would be nice.

The shoulder pads obstructed my ability to turn my head, so I took them out. (I wear a full-coverage helmet.)

I am a rather stocky fellow, so I ordered the jacket with the hem flair. You can't tell from looking at it that this has been done. It still has smooth lines, and it doesn't bind when swinging my leg over the bike.

In short, a well thought-out jacket. Keeps you dry, cool and warm, is comfortable to wear, and the hi-viz is that.